1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processor, an authentication control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has been natural for companies to obtain standards in information security. There is also a strong demand for ensuring security for the functions of business machines used daily in companies. In view of such circumstances, some conventional image forming apparatuses (business machines having one or more functions of a copier, printer, scanner, facsimile machine, etc.) have a (built-in) user authentication function.
As user information items entered at the time of user authentication, such as a username and a password as typical examples, those entered in a manner unseeable by others are more preferable than those directly entered manually by a user in terms of security. Therefore, such solutions exist that cause user information to be entered using an external device such as an IC card as a typical example at the time of user authentication in the image forming apparatus. (See, for example, Patent Documents 1 through 3 listed below.)
On the other hand, it is often the case that an authentication system using a unique authentication server has already been constructed in the user environment of the image forming apparatus.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-215770
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2007-122384
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-92437
According to the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 through 3, however, the processing performed by the IC card or the external authentication server and the processing performed by the image forming apparatus at the time of user authentication are fixed. Further, an available external device is also limited and fixed. Accordingly, the authentication function (authentication system) in the image forming apparatus and the authentication system in the user environment exist independent of each other. As a result, the system configuration becomes redundant, thus causing problems such as complication of maintenance work.